But hey, lets just visit some place, enjoy the vibes and then say go for it.

Anyone would agree Tobacco has ruined the health and lives of millions of kiwis. That was a mistake based on lack of knowledge ( and wilful obstruction by the tobacco industry) over centuries.

Loosening alcohol restrictions hasnt worked to the better either. The alcohol industry fights every foot of the way along with their fellow travellers in the pokies business ( created by liquor interests to start with as their product is not especially addictive for most)

Marijuana is a big distorting influence in many parts of the country, but heh since the chattering classes are ambivalent - "didnt do me any harm" lets make it commercialYet the 'synthetics' experiment shows even turning tinnies into a FMCG is destined for disaster

"According to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, the organization responsible for much of the campaigning in support of Amendment 64, cannabis use by teens is likely to go down because commercial access would be limited to persons 21 and older."

I nearly fell off my chair laughing ....

But wait theres more.." This amendment requires the general assembly to enact an excise tax to be levied upon wholesale sales of cannabis, requiring that the first $40 million in revenue raised annually by such tax be credited to the public school capital construction assistance fund."

The first $40 mil for school construction fund ?

Its beyond laughable when you know how politics and funding works. Yep, more libraries for high decile schools. We have been there al lready with the pokies funding and we know how the haves get more from those who have most to lose

Hey Damian, Hi(gh :). What was the strain of pot that you were standing amongst. The leaves look fascinating or am I seeing things and was it just a drying room?I think the States are getting it right and the way to get the likes of Soccer Moms on board was show the money, Tax it. Soccer moms aren't forking out their "hard earned money" but directly can benefit in the community.Everyone wins something.I think there is something to the age of 21 also. Over here I think 18 made way for 17,16yr olds to access and that immaturity shows up in programs like Campbell live. .

I guess we're now in a position to find out if that is true, in Colorado, rather than a guess. You got your prediction. I got mine. Which is that Colorado won't change much at all. But millions of people in Colorado can now be honest about what they do. Which is worth a great deal to them.

A well known pokies operator was set to make a small fortune from a new trust until his estranged wife leaked a series of emails to Internal Affairs, which blocked the trust.Kay McIntyre handed over her husband Ray's emails, including ones where he persuaded his sister-in-law to lie to investigators and his lawyer to redact his name from paperwork.That evidence led the Gambling Commission to back an Internal Affairs decision to refuse a licence to a new gaming trust, Phoenix, which wanted to operate pokies in Christchurch sports bar Sideline.

Thanks for the post. Did you happen to have any discussions with employers or employees around 'Drug testing' in a workplace and if testing has been relaxed or tightened up around this major issue? I certainly wouldn't want to work with people who are impaired at work nor do I think it's fair that people that may have had a smoke occasionally in the weekend get sacked because it shows up in a test. Saliva testing (pot in your system 2 days) seems to be a fairer system because it's more definitive around a timeframe, employers are reluctant to even consider it as a testing mechanism in NZ. I've tried to argue that a Saliva test should be the first step,if a positive result occurs this gives the employer the opportunity to require an employee to take a urine test so that if someone takes a wrongful dismissal to a employment tribunal there is a recorded level.Surely the whole debate should be about impairment in a workplace . I can honestly say that in my younger days I wasn't still wasted or impaired 24 hours later after having a puff. We really need employer groups,legislators etc to have a look at this properly rather than putting their heads in the sand. Employers are reluctant to test regularly because of the cost associated (I assume),surely if they are concerned about health and safety, regular saliva testing is a more cost effective way to tell if anyone is a risk at work to other workers.

I read a month or so back that the tax take was coming in well below early optimistic projections of popularity (about half in fact for the first couple of months). It will probably make the 40 million for school buildings, but it may not get that much more.

I've often wondered about the quality of what gets sold on the street - one of the scandals of our time is what big business will put in food if it can get away with it. Current levels of pesticides on pot could be grim, especially given the factors of heat and inhalation.

Being of the definitely not smoking persuasion, it's the other methods stuff that I'm watching. "Gummie bears" could easily be made, say, green and leaf-shaped rather than bear-shaped, so that it's at least obvious what's inside. Trying to make them unattractive to children (especially if you call all those under 21 children) is going to be hard work, especially since they'd ideally also be attractive to adults.

Being of the definitely not smoking persuasion, it’s the other methods stuff that I’m watching. “Gummie bears” could easily be made, say, green and leaf-shaped rather than bear-shaped, so that it’s at least obvious what’s inside. Trying to make them unattractive to children (especially if you call all those under 21 children) is going to be hard work, especially since they’d ideally also be attractive to adults.

Yes, as Damian said, "edibles" seem to be the part they're rethinking. What strikes me is how much more wholesome the cannabis retail environment is in Colorado than the synthetic cannabis retail environment is here, with its hole-in-the-wall shops. Could you even replicate that in New Zealand? Is the market the same? Is society the same? Was part of our mistake guaranteeing the chancers who already sold synthetic cannabinoids a continued living?

Well, we did actually have a much more wholesome environment when synthetics were sold in dairies, right next to tobacco. But we stopped that. It wasn't even that long ago. I don't recall hordes of stoners hanging around my corner dairy at 9am.

Could you even replicate that in New Zealand? Is the market the same? Is society the same?

If we went back to selling it in dairies, I'd say those sleazy places would dry up overnight. You'd still be able to go to one, but who would bother?

Was part of our mistake guaranteeing the chancers who already sold synthetic cannabinoids a continued living?

We never guaranteed that. Thousands of retailers had to stop stocking it. My corner dairy guy was bitter because it was a good earner. It hit him right in the pocket to give all that trade to the dodgy place next to the brothel in New Lynn, which I think might be the closest place I could now go to get a legal high, 2km away. Good place to go if I want to get a glass pipe or a dildo, though.

I can understand restricted drug testing at work when other people's lives might be at risk, but I would definitely not like us to have a society that makes people pee in a cup (or spit on a stick, or whatever) just to get or hold on to some bullshit retail or cubicle job. That's how the US works in many places and I think it's horrible.

Urine testing unfortunately is happening in retail or cubicle jobs and I know of one person who was asked to take a urine test, they took 14 weeks to pass a clean test/before being allowed to return to work,they were tested regularly during suspension(no wages) ,levels were dropping during the process to prove that they had not been using, Meanwhile a person who dabbles in A class substances generally will pass a test within a few days.We need a fairer way to measure impairment rather than urine testing which only proves that you have it in your system.

But hey, lets just visit some place, enjoy the vibes and then say go for it.

Yeah, that's exactly what I did. I didn't spend hours with the head of the Colorado State Patrol. I didn't spend half a day at the Colorado Department of Transportation. I didn't interview public prosecutors, lawyers, the Mayor, sellers, growers, smokers....

Oh that's right, I did all of that. I went looking for problems associated with legalisation. Problems that didn't already exist under prohibition. But thanks for reducing all that to a snide quip.

If you're worried about the fact that the tax will inevitably benefit the higher decile schools, perhaps you should consider the disproportionate effect that prohibition has on lower socioeconomic sectors - as you point out, it's not the chattering class smokers getting criminal records or worse...

Did you happen to have any discussions with employers or employees around 'Drug testing' in a workplace and if testing has been relaxed or tightened up around this major issue?

Not really - Colorado has at-will employment, so you can fire anyone at any time for any reason anyway.

As for back home, I did a story recently about the expansion of workplace drug testing - well beyond those areas where safety is paramount, and into the offices of NZ. Obviously I have no issue with an employer requiring their staff not to be stoned at work, but you're right about saliva vs urine. I interviewed one drug testing organisation who proudly told me how far back they could go with hair testing - they can tell what you did months ago! Yay...